Happy Friday, shipmates! It’s Alex, and I’ve got your second round of duologies and trilogies that finished up this year for you to peruse. Also, I found more holiday dragon merch, because I cannot be stopped. Have a wonderful weekend and a good holiday if it’s one you celebrate! Stay safe out there, space pirates — I’ll see you on Tuesday.
Are you looking for the perfect gift for that bookish special someone in your life this holiday season? Tailored Book Recommendations is here to help! Here at TBR, we pair our customers with a professional book nerd (aka bibliologist) who just gets them. They fill out a survey and then sit back and relax as we pick books just for them. We’ve got three levels — recs-only, paperback, and hardcover — and you can gift a full year or one time, so there are options for every budget! Get all the details at mybtro.com/gift.
Let’s make the world a better place, together. Here are two places to start: Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, which provides medical and humanitarian relief to children in the Middle East regardless of nationality, religion, or political affiliation; and Ernesto’s Sanctuary, a cat sanctuary and animal rescue in Syria that is near and dear to my heart.
Bookish Goods
Ancient Gingerbread Dragon by Dibs3dprinting
Did you think I was done digging up holiday-themed dragon stuff? YOU THOUGHT WRONG. This is adorable, and now I want to try to make it out of actual gingerbread, though I fear my skills are not equal to it. $31
(Not) New Releases
Dang good duologies part the second!
Ballad and Dagger by Daniel José Older
Second book: Last Canto for the Dead
Mateo Matisse’s homeland sank into the sea sixteen years ago, which is how he came to be in New York. While his community wants to find a way back home, he’d like to just live his life as a high school junior and piano prodigy. But on the night of the Grand Fete, a community party celebrating their unique culture, the evil that sank the island catches up with them…
Spring’s Arcana by Lilith Saintcrow
Second book: The Salt-Black Tree
Nat would do anything to save her mother, whose cancer diagnosis leaves little room for hope. This includes finding a stolen object of power for a winter goddess — and that means embarking on a road trip with an assassin just to start…
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
Another round of triumphant trilogies!
Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee
Second book: Tiger Honor
Third book: Fox Snare
This star-spanning space opera follows the adventures of young animal spirits who have hidden themselves as humans: foxes, a tiger, and a dragon.
A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
Second book: A Restless Truth
Third book: A Power Unbound
A young baronet who is just trying to be a good employer and older brother while administering a destitute estate is accidentally appointed as the civil service liaison to a secret, magical society that reveals the truth of what’s been lurking under ordinary reality all the while. But it’s not all paperwork and marveling at magic — his predecessor disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and it only gets more worrisome from there.
See you, space pirates. If you’d like to know more about my secret plans to dominate the seas and skies, you can catch me over at my personal site.